Bahamas 21

Bermuda 15

Bermuda’s error-strewn performance on Saturday means they are likely to spend at least another year in the lower tier of the North American and Caribbean Rugby Association Championship.

Only a surprise win for Turks and Caicos Islands over Bahamas in the final North Zone Cup League match can save them.

There were areas where Bermuda were by far the better team, notably in the scrum, but they came up short when it mattered. They butchered four tryscoring opportunities, missed some important tackles, committed a host of little errors and blew a ten-point lead — all of which combined to hand Bahamas the win they so desperately wanted.

“We said months ago that we were not going to lose this game,” Charles Smith, the Bahamas captain, said. “This was about family, about the man next to you, about your brother. That’s what it boiled down to; you don’t want to let your family down.”

The tears that streamed down Smith’s face after he scored his side’s winning try two minutes from time spoke volumes, as did the admission from Roedolf van der Westhuizen, the Bermuda head coach, that Bahamas “wanted it more than us in the end”.

Van der Westhuizen’s side will carry bruised egos as well as bruised bodies back to Bermuda, and for some this will be the end of road. Paul Dobinson, the prop, has already announced his intention to retire from international rugby, and he may not be the last.

If there are to be positives in this defeat, and Lawrence Bird, who coached the team the last time they lost in the Bahamas in 2005 and is now helping Van der Westhuizen, believes there are, it is that Bermuda look capable of far more.

“There was a lot of positive stuff there, a lot of the structure was there,” Bird said.

“Another couple of games and we would have been a different machine.”

Like any machine, however, there are parts that need fine-tuning, and the absence of Dan Cole, the full back, and Durnferd Davis, the wing, certainly made a difference on Saturday.

In their stead, Rich Cumbers filled in at No 15 and Chris Kawaley slotted in on the wing.

Kawaley has pace but is raw and was exposed defensively on a couple of occasions.

He was replaced at half-time by Andre Landy, who committed possibly the worst mistake of the game when he was held up well over the tryline. Neither are ready to play consistently at this level, but they represent the team’s future and, along with several members of the under-19 side, will push for starting spots sooner rather than later.

As a team, however, Bermuda ultimately suffered because they did not keep their composure. They were, in Van der Westhuizen’s words, “schooled” in that art on Saturday.

“When we needed to keep calm, we tried to force things a little bit and we paid the price,” he said.

Bermuda should not have been in a position where they were having to force anything in the first place. Even without Patrick Calow’s poor missed penalty goal attempt inside the first two minutes, they were comfortably the better team in the first half and were ten points up, thanks to Calow’s kicking and Paull Davis’s try after 26 minutes.

By that time they had also wasted two tryscoring opportunities, but the handling errors that cost them in the end were already starting to creep in. Knock-ons and forward passes stifled Bermuda’s game, and gave Bahamas balls that they were not winning at the breakdown.

A scrappy half, in which Bahamas kicked the ball away as often as they tried to keep it, ended with both sides a man down, and Bahamas back in the contest through Giovanni Rolle’s converted try.

The sides traded tries after the break, through Michael Watkins and Van der Westhuizen, and only a point separated the teams going into the final ten minutes.

Bermuda had opportunities to win the game, but knocked on or passed forward and Bahamas kept plugging away, right up until Smith, the prop, barged over from a yard out after Bermuda had again been penalised at the breakdown.

The visiting side had a final chance to win and got within touching distance of the tryline before they knocked on once more. An error that largely summed up Bermuda’s day.